1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of automated test equipment for semiconductor testing. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for developing a test program for a semiconductor test system.
2. Description of Related Art
A semiconductor test system has a complex system environment having multiple devices working together. The test system may include a plurality of controllers, which control the operation of a plurality of vendor modules and their corresponding device-under-tests (DUTs). A test program for a semiconductor test system is required to run in the complex system environment. One method of developing such a test program is to write test codes directly in a system program language (SPL) such as C++. With this method, however, a test engineer is burdened with the complex test system environment. In particular, the test engineer has to follow a number of complicated system programming rules and to meet the requirements of the system program language in order to develop the test program.
Another problem with the existing methodology is that errors in the test program may not be identified until the test program is compiled in the SPL or until the test program is run during the testing of a DUT. In addition, it is often difficult and time consuming to identify test plan errors in the complex test system environment. Such limitations may delay production of the DUT, which could delay product release and lose market opportunities.
Therefore, there is a need to remove the complexity of system programming from the development of test plans. In particular, there is a need for developing test plans in a language which is closer to the problem domain that the test engineer is familiar with, as opposed to a language that introduces the complexity of the test system. In addition, there is a need to identify errors in a test plan prior to system compilation. An early detection of test plan errors can lead to reduction in development time of the test programs and the DUTs being tested.